Greaton’s GPO hotel plan in the heart of Adelaide to be approved but with conditions

THESE new artist impressions show a 16-storey hotel rising above one of Adelaide’s most historic buildings, the General Post Office on Victoria Square’s northwest corner. The transformation is about to get the tick of approval from the state’s planning authority — as long as it meets a few conditions.

Artist impression of a proposed 16-storey hotel and retail tower on the GPO site on the corner of King William and Franklin streets.

• BHP to move HQ to GPO precinct office tower
• The $300m overhaul of Adelaide’s central GPO precinct

A HOTEL as part of the major transformation at the historic GPO precinct is set to get the tick of approval by the State Commission Assessment Panel.

But Greaton — the local developer of the 16-level hotel, which will rise above the heritage-listed General Post Office on Victoria Square’s northwest corner — will have to make some changes to the multimillion-dollar design under the SCAP ruling to be handed down on Thursday.

How the lower public areas of the proposed hotel would look.

The hotel is part of a $300 million plus development at the historic precinct, headed by developer Charter Hall, that will involve a $250 million state-of-the-art office tower that will host mining giant BHP.

Construction of the tower, which will have BHP’s logo emblazoned on the 20th floor of the GPO Exchange building, is expected to be completed in the third quarter of next year.

The Attorney-General’s Department will also move its operations to the GPO Exchange building.

This view from Victoria Square shows the existing GPO building will look with the new BHP office tower on the left and the new hotel behind the clock tower.

How the proposed development would look from the Adelaide Town Hall.

And work is set to shortly start behind the historic GPO building with SCAP to give Greaton approval for the construction of the hotel, which will also include the adaptive reuse of the GPO building for a mix of retail land and ancillary hotel uses.

But this will come with a range of heritage conditions and matters, such as the design and detail of the structure over the site’s porte-cochere (a covered coach gate dating back to the 19th century).

The proposed internal works to the 1872 and 1893 GPO buildings will be reserved for further assessment to the satisfaction of the SCAP in consultation with Heritage South Australia and the Government Architect.